Wollusite Defence Force
The Wollusite Defence Force (W: Wollus Defensje Hiedlrn) was the military organisation responsible for the defence of the Free Nation of Wollus between ERA 09-10 and 09-49. Divided into three service branches, the Army (Lanjedars), Navy (Seekragmur) and Air Force (Flukkragmur), it had a strength of between 80,000 and 400,000 troops, the majority of which were reservists. History War of the Century Between its establishment in ERA 08-74 and the beginning of the War of the Century, the nation of Wollus, as a Causewgian protectorate, had its defence needs provided by the Causewegian Regionales. Wollusite volunteers were formed into several local corps within the larger Causeway army, and despite some differences in uniform and equipment, were under direct command of its parent nation as any other Causewegian unit. The Wollusite corps fought both on their own territory and in Causeway during the United Republic's invasion. This changed after the liberation of Wollus late into the war, as its leaders found the nation's reliance on Causeway as flawed due to its prioritisation of its own territory over that of its protectorate. In line with the state's renewed assertions of independence in the decades that followed, the Wollusite Defence Force was formed as the new armed force of Wollus. Interwar During the interwar years, the country was embroiled in several border clashes with both the United Forces and the resurgent independent state of Heartland. Both was considered credible threats to the country's survival - an United Republic attack on Causeway and Wollus after its defeat in the War of the Century was considered inevitable, while Heartland had made little efforts to conceal its own territorial aspirations to its south, as well as in Zicia. Thus, the improvement of the Defence Force was one of the main priorities of the country in the years after the end of the war. Years turned into decades, and despite sporadic tensions between powers no direct attack was made against Wollus. This contributed to a sense of complacency within both the government and the armed forces, which subsequently fell into atrophy. Budget cuts continually shrank the size of the standing army, while lack of funding forbade modernisation, particularly in terms of motorisation, mechanisation and advances in aircraft technology. Its command and manoeuvrability also stagnated - the force closely modelled itself after the Causewegian Regionales, who too had undergone reduced readiness due to economic upheaval caused by the last war, and lacked the resources to innovate and keep pace with tactical development. As such, the Wollusite armed forces were in a dire state of unsteadiness in the lead up to the Global Conflict. Global Conflict Western intelligence had observed the United Republic's preparations for a large scale attack years before it came in April ERA 09-49, but expected them to be completed far later than that. As such, the attack was a huge shock for the Imperial-Causewegian-Wollusite alliance, who had only managed to respond in kind rudimentary with increased rearmament and the calling up of reserves. Wollus was severely outnumbered when the Republic invasion was launched on April 1st, and despite favourable defensive factors and a strong will to resist, was practically eliminated as an effective fighting force within days. The meticulous plan to overwhelm the Wollusite military began with an intense bombing campaign that destroyed key infrastructure such a transport and communications, and caught much of the Wollusite air force on the ground. Next, airborne forces were inserted to secure assault routes for the ground forces, capture airfields, forts and supply depots, and generally sew confusion. This left the defending formations virtually paralysed, cut off from command and other units, and highly vulnerable to being surrounded by the heavily mechanized United Forces. Some of the more disciplined Wollusite units in the border region stood their ground, and despite inflicting damage to the invaders were ultimately wiped out. The majority of defenders fell back to the west in disarray, but were slow to react and were soon caught by the onrushing UF spearhead racing towards to coast. During April 2nd to 4th, the vital port cities of Dielmond, Duma, Gurqwolle, Somuo, Seestuve and Wadden had fallen into Republic hands, preventing Imperial reinforcements from landing and threatening the UF's northern flank. Only the city of Cerieswille, under heavy siege and constant air attack, managed to resist thanks to the efforts of Imperial, Causewegian and Wollusite units, allowing those trapped in the theatre the chance of evacuation by sea. In the Battle of Cerieswille fought between the April 4th and 8th, UF forces overran the city, ending coalition operations within the country. The attention of the Republic forces then turned towards Causeway, its main thrust diverting away from Wollus to the south-east, leaving a significantly smaller portion of its army behind to mop up remaining Wollusite resistance. By this point, the cream of the defence forces had been wiped out, leaving its poorly trained and equipped reserve forces to finish the fight. By this point, however, Wollus had the advantage in numbers, and made preparations to draw out the war long enough for the coalition forces in Causeway to gain the upper hand. Each time the Defence Forces battled the UF they were defeated, although they inflicted heavier losses on the enemy than expected and did succeed in lengthening the campaign. As the end of April drew near however, the Wollusite army was on the brink of collapse, having exhausted its supply of virtually all materiel. The capital of Gáusallay, having been razed to the ground by UF bombers earlier in the week, surrendered on April 22nd. Fighting continued piecemeal for several days afterwards, but all opposition had ceased by the 30th. Over a quarter of a million Wollusites died in the invasion, three quarters of which were civilians, buried in their own homes during the near-constant bombing raids. Aftermath The day after the armistice on May 2nd, the Wollusite Defence Forces was dissolved and the UF occupied the country. Some units escaped to Causeway, where they fought on with the coalition until Causeway itself capitulated in July that year - around 600 Wollusite soldiers were evacuated to the Great Empire during the Flight from Causeway. Within months however reservists were being called up for duty again by the United Republic, who declared that Heartland was preparing to take advantage of the devastation and invade. Claiming to have admired Wollusite determination during the battle, it urged its population to fight for its own survival, and promised to award the country with official membership into the United Federation, handing over domestic control once the war had been won. Despite severe bitterness towards the United Republic over their invasion, the majority of the population feared Heartlandian occupation more, and so agreed to collaborate with the UF. Between August and November ERA 09-49, 180,000 personnel were trained as part of the fledgling Wollusite arm of the Republic Expeditionary Army, and were backed by around 75,000 foreign Expeditionaries when Heartland launched its own invasion. Even more volunteered after the invasion, and peak strength of the provisional Republic Army was achieved in December ERA 09-51, at 560,000 men and women. This force was defeated by a renewed offensive in ERA 09-52 however, and the provisional Republic was annexed into greater Heartland. During the war for Wollus, 30% of its population served in its armed forces - the highest percentage of any nation during the Global Conflict. Equipment Army In the aftermath of the War of the Century, the Wollusite Army was primarily equipped with weapons donated by their allies. The majority of these types were captured from the enemy, either the United Republic or Heartland, and were large in variety. Through calibre modifications and modernisation programs, Wollus managed well to integrate these weapons into their own armed forces, backed up by a relatively strong domestic industrial capacity which allowed new equipment to be developed and purchased when needed. However, funding was lacking for several decades leading up to the Global Conflict which contributed to the Defence Force's poor performance. Despite continual upgrades to its arsenal of small arms and artillery to keep pace with other powers, only a very small part of the army was fully motorised, with the rest relying on rail and horse transport - Wollus made more use of cavalry units than most others in the world at that time. The army also had a modest armoured car fleet and comparatively few tanks, which were either old types sold by Causeway as surplus, or newly developed vehicles that had arrived too late to be produced in quantity to effect battlefield change. Worse still, these few mechanised units were shackled to infantry formations, and so their increased mobility was wasted. This was in stark contrast to the UF forces they faced - the Wollusites' poor mobility allowed their formations to be quickly flanked, broken up or surrounded. They also lagged behind in communications technology, relying heavily on telephone lines that were destroyed in the first day's air attacks. The few units equipped with radios found them unreliable and with too short a broadcast range. The resulting communications breakdown effectively paralysed their best fighting units, leaving them vulnerable to destruction at the start of the battle. Air Force The Air Force, much like the Army, had had its technological growth stunted by lack of funding. Primarily made up of biplane fighters that were obsolete 20 years before the Battle for Wollus started, the types were no match for the superior numbers of metal monoplanes fielded by the UF. Very few units actually got the chance to test this imbalance of power however as the Air Force sustained severe losses on the ground during the first few days of fighting, leaving the UF able to bomb Wollus' cities without significant opposition. Despite this, the training of Wollus' small cadre of pilots was believed to be excellent - several fighter units managed to escape to friendly airfields in Causeway after the fight for Wollus was deemed lost, and achieved exemplary service records as volunteers in either the Causewegian or Imperial Air Forces. The Wollusite bomber formation managed to perform several nighttime reprisal raids against UF border towns in the first week of the invasion, but as more airfields fell into Republic hands these quickly ceased. Navy The pre-war Wollusite Navy was equipped with a small fleet of destroyers and smaller support vessels, in addition to a few submarines. As the Navy's duty had been to patrol the western coast and protect trade links with their Great Channel colonies such as the Eastern Enclaves, no offensive actions were taken by the Navy during the war, which for the most part withdrew to ports in Wollus' island territories. Their Navy was spared destruction until ERA 09-53, when the islands were attacked by North Zician forces under the control of Heartland.